National News

Tawana Brawley starts making payments to men she falsely accused of raping her

(Jonathon M. Seidl) The woman behind the case that helped solidify Al Sharpton as a national personality has begun making payments to one of the men she was found to have falsely accused of raping her.

Tawana Brawley, a black woman who in 1987 accused a group of white men of the sexual assault, has now paid just over $3,700 to former county prosecutor Steven Pagones who was named as one of the attackers.

The New York Post has more on the payments, which it says have come in 10 separate installments:

Last week, 10 checks totaling $3,764.61 were delivered to ex-prosecutor Steven Pagones — the first payments Brawley has made since a court determined in 1998 that she defamed him with her vicious hoax.

A Virginia court this year ordered the money garnisheed from six months of Brawley’s wages as a nurse there.

She still owes Pagones $431,000 in damages. And she remains defiantly unapologetic.

“It’s a long time coming,” the 52-year-old Pagones told the Post.

“Every week, she’ll think of me,” he added. “And every week, she can think about how she has a way out — she can simply tell the truth.”

The Associated Press has more back story on the initial case from nearly 30 years ago:

Brawley, then 15 and living in Wappingers Falls, claimed she had been sexually assaulted by white men who who smeared her with feces and scrawled racial epithets on her body.

The case quickly made headlines and drew the attention of Sharpton, who became an outspoken advocate for the teen.

A special state grand jury later determined that Brawley had fabricated her claims, perhaps to avoid punishment for staying out late.

Brawley is currently working as a nurse in Virginia. You can see a recent photo of her over at the Post.

Her parents, the Associated Press reports, still maintain she was raped.